Objective: This study aimed to investigate, in patients with severe sepsis, the correlation between central venous oxygen saturation and tissue oxygen saturation at different levels.
Design: Prospective observational study.
Setting: General intensive care unit at an academic medical center in France.
Patients: Thirty-eight patients with underresuscitated severe sepsis and septic shock on intensive care unit admission.
Interventions: None.
Measurements and main results: During early resuscitation according to the 6-hr bundles of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines, tissue oxygen saturation was recorded every other hour at the level of the thenar, masseter, and deltoid muscles along with central hemodynamics, arterial lactate concentrations, and central venous oxygen saturation. Over the 6-hr resuscitation period, thenar tissue oxygen saturation was consistently higher than masseter tissue oxygen saturation (p = .04) and deltoid tissue oxygen saturation (p = .002), and masseter tissue oxygen saturation was consistently higher than deltoid tissue oxygen saturation (p = .04). Receiver operating characteristic curves analyses showed that masseter tissue oxygen saturation was better predictor of central venous oxygen saturation >70% than thenar tissue oxygen saturation (area under the curve, 0.80; 95% confidence interval 0.71-0.89 vs. 0.67; 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.77; p = .02). The crude 28-day mortality was 36.8%. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that masseter tissue oxygen saturation (area under the curve 0.87; 0.75-0.98) and deltoid tissue oxygen saturation (area under the curve 0.88; 0.77-0.98) but not thenar tissue oxygen saturation (area under the curve 0.66; 0.46-0.86) or central venous oxygen saturation (area under the curve 0.56; 0.38-0.80) were strong predictors of 28-day mortality.
Conclusions: This study suggested that in the early 6-hr resuscitation period, masseter tissue oxygen saturation accurately identified patients with severe sepsis and central venous oxygen saturation >70%. Both masseter tissue oxygen saturation and deltoid tissue oxygen saturation but not central venous oxygen saturation or thenar tissue oxygen saturation are strong predictors of 28-day mortality.